Hockey had a big–and epic–night.
NBC: Per Mitch Metcalf: A very good rating for the NHL STANLEY CUP FINAL GAME 1. The match lasted over five hours, and it was well into the third overtime period (almost two full games) when Chicago beat Boston 3-2. The fast national rating of 2.4 with adults 18-49 is an excellent start to the series, up a giant 1.4 from the overnight number for last year’s Game 1. NBC Sports’ exceptionally lame tagline for the Stanley Cup, “Because It’s the Cup,” actually looks pretty effective and well written now. In the 56 markets with local Nielsen meters (a different sample from the national sample which produces the fast national ratings above), we get a glimpse of the correct time-zone-adjusted viewing behavior for a live telecast like Game 1. During the 8:00 half hour (5:00 on the west coast), the game averaged a 4.1 household rating (demographics not available), and quickly rose to a 4.7 at 8:30, then a 4.5 at 9:00 and an early peak of 5.2 at 9:30. Then back down to 4.7 at 10:00 (during another period break and rare commercial interruption) before peaking at a 5.5 rating at 10:30. The 11:00 pm local news half hour is not available, but 11:30 pm saw a 5.2 rating for the game (versus 3.5 for Letterman and 2.4 for Kimmel) and the 12:00 am half hour delivered a 4.7 rating (pounding the 2.3 for Letterman and 1.5 for Kimmel). A lot of bleary-eyed hockey fans, especially in Chicago and Boston.
FOX: The 2 hours of MASTERCHEF were at 2.2/2.4, respectively up 0.1 and down 0.2 from last week.
CBS: AMERICAN BAKING COMPETITION was up marginally to 1.2, but the night’s biggest number was a 1.4 for the 10PM CSI rerun.
ABC: FAMILY TOOLS and THE LOOKOUT were flat at 0.9 and 1.1, and HOW TO LIVE WITH YOUR PARENTS (FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE) hit a new low 1.2.
CW: Reruns at 0.3/0.4.
Sports will dominate again tonight with NBA FINALS GAME 4 on ABC. NBC burns off the last episode of SAVE ME and has an original HANNIBAL, and FOX’s unscripted shows are all new.
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